This invention relates to an aging socket and an aging cassette suitably applied to a small electronic part such as a semiconductor laser device and an aging device for performing aging for a small electronic part.
An aging socket, an aging cassette and an aging apparatus which are conventionally known are shown in FIGS. 7 to 13B.
First, a semiconductor laser coupler which is one of aging object parts to be aged is described briefly with reference to FIG. 7.
The semiconductor laser coupler D shown is constructed such that a laser device body mounted on a circuit board is accommodated in a package 1 of a shape of a parallelepiped which has an opening 2 at a central portion of the top thereof while a pair of wedge-shaped notches 3 are formed in the middle of a pair of opposing sides thereof such that a laser beam is emitted from the opening 2 and then introduced into the opening 2 after it is reflected by a reflecting object so that some signals may be detected by the semiconductor laser coupler D.
An aging apparatus and an aging cassette are shown in FIGS. 8 and 9, respectively. Referring to FIGS. 8 and 9, the aging cassette (hereinafter referred to merely as xe2x80x9ccassettexe2x80x9d) 20 and the aging apparatus 10 are used such that the semiconductor laser coupler D as described above with reference to FIG. 7 is placed onto the cassette 20 and then the cassette 20 is placed onto the aging apparatus 10 and then heated to a temperature of 60xc2x0 C. to 70xc2x0 C. to evaluate a condition of deterioration of various characteristics of the semiconductor laser coupler D.
The aging apparatus 10 includes a housing 11 of a large size and has a constant temperature bath function of keeping the inside thereof constant at the temperature mentioned above. The inside of the aging apparatus 10 is partitioned like a matrix to form a plurality of slots 12 therein. Further, though not shown, a common heater and fan are built in the aging apparatus 10 such that hot air heated by the heater is blasted into the inside of the housing 11 to simultaneously heat all cassettes 20 accommodated in the slots 12 to a substantially equal temperature while the temperature is controlled so as to be fixed by a temperature regulator also which is built in the aging apparatus 10. Further, the aging apparatus 10 has a front panel section 13 on the right side in FIG. 8, and a temperature display apparatus 14 and a power supply switch 15 are provided at an upper portion of the front panel section 13. Further, a circuit breaker 16 and so forth are provided at a lower portion of the front panel section 13.
It is to be noted that, although, during aging of the aging apparatus 10, the front of the aging apparatus 10 is closed up with a door to keep the inside of the aging apparatus 10 at the constant temperature, in FIG. 8 the aging apparatus 10 is shown with the door removed. Further, in FIG. 8, the aging apparatus 10 is shown in a state wherein the cassette 20 shown in FIG. 9 is inserted in each of the slots 12 described above.
The cassette 20 is formed in such a structure as shown in FIGS. 9 to 12. Referring to FIGS. 9 to 12, the cassette 20 includes a body 21 and a lid member 22 connected to each other by a pair of hinges 23. The body 21 receives a plurality of semiconductor laser couplers D as aging object parts thereon, and the lid member 22 has a plurality of light receiving elements R, which each receives a laser beam, incorporated therein corresponding to the semiconductor laser couplers D.
While FIG. 9 shows the cassette 20 where semiconductor laser couplers D are mounted on the body 21, each of the semiconductor laser couplers D is received in a socket 30 shown in FIGS. 10 to 13B. Before the structure of the socket 30 is described, the structure of the cassette 20 is described. A plurality of sockets 30 are incorporated in an arrangement of a matrix on a face of the body 21 of the cassette 20 which opposes to the lid member 22. A power supply electrode, a ground electrode and a signal transmission/reception electrode are incorporated in each of the sockets 30, and the electrodes of the sockets 30 are connected to an electronic circuit board 24 disposed below the sockets 30. Part of the electronic circuit board 24 is led out toward the hinged side 23 of the cassette 20 and serves as a plug-in terminal 24A when the cassette 20 is inserted into a slot 12 of the aging apparatus 10.
Meanwhile, a plurality of circular holes 25 are formed at portions of a surface of the lid member 22 adjacent the body 21 in an opposing relationship to the sockets 30. Further, a hold down plate 26 is disposed on the surface of the lid member 22 adjacent the body 21 such that it can hold down the semiconductor laser couplers D when the lid member 22 is closed while the semiconductor laser couplers D are received in the socket 30, and the light receiving elements R are disposed in the circular holes 25. Also various electrodes of the light receiving elements R are connected to an electronic circuit of a electronic circuit board 27 disposed behind them. Part of the electronic circuit board 27 is led out to the hinged side 23 of the cassette 20 similarly and serves as another plug-in terminal 27A when the cassette 20 is inserted into a slot 12 of the aging apparatus 10.
A U-shaped handle 28A is mounted on an end face of the body 21 remote from the hinges 23, and another U-shaped handle 28B of an equal size is mounted on a corresponding end face of the lid member 22.
The socket 30 is particularly shown in FIGS. 13A and 13B. Referring to FIGS. 13A and 13B, the socket 30 has a cylindrical portion 31 of a comparatively great thickness at a central portion thereof. An upper flange 32 in the form of a disk having a comparatively small thickness is formed horizontally at an upper end of the cylindrical portion 31, and a mounting flange 33 in the form of a disk having a comparatively great thickness is formed horizontally at a lower end of the cylindrical portion 31. Consequently, the socket 30 is formed as a base 34 of a tubular structure having a U-shaped cross section. A pair of electrode pins 36A and 36B are positioned in an opposing relationship on an inner circumferential face of a hollow portion 35 of a horizontally circular section at a central portion of the base 34 and are led out downwardly of the base 34 from a receiving face of the base 34 for a semiconductor laser coupler D.
Further, a pair of positioning pins 37A and 37B are embedded in the base 34 such that they are held in contact with outer arcuate faces of the electrode pins 36A and 36B and extend upwardly a little above the top face of the base 34. The distance between inner arcuate faces of the positioning pins 37A and 37B is set corresponding to the distance between the pair of notches 3 formed on the package 1 for a semiconductor laser coupler D.
Four fixing screws 38 are formed in the mounting flange 33, and four through-holes 39 are formed in the upper flange 32 and positioned above the mounting flange 33. Thus, a screwdriver may be inserted in any of the through-holes 39 and screw a fixing screw into the fixing screw 38 to fasten the base 34 to a mounting member of the body 21 side. In FIGS. 13A and 13B, a semiconductor laser coupler D is shown mounted on the socket 30.
The conventional aging apparatus 10 and cassette 20 are constructed in such structures as described above. In order to perform aging of semiconductor laser couplers D using the aging apparatus 10 and the cassette 20, the lid member 22 of the cassette 20 is opened first, and a semiconductor laser coupler D is placed into each of the sockets 30 disposed on the body 21 of the cassette 20 such that the positioning pins 37A and 37B are inserted into the notches 3 of the semiconductor laser coupler D until the semiconductor laser coupler D is brought into contact with the electrode pins 36A and 36B.
Then, a large number of such cassettes 20 as described above on each of which a large number of semiconductor laser couplers D are mounted in such a manner as described above are inserted into the slots 12 of the aging apparatus 10 until the plug-in terminals 24A and 27A projecting from the cassettes 20 are fitted into sockets (not shown) mounted at interior portions of the slots 12 so that they are mounted in position. Then, the door (not shown) of the aging apparatus 10 is closed.
Thereafter, the power supply switch 15 of the aging apparatus 10 is turned on so that the inside of the aging apparatus 10 is heated until such a predetermined fixed temperature as described above is reached, and the inside of the aging apparatus 10 is regulated by the temperature regulators 13 so that the individual cassettes 20 may be kept at the predetermined fixed temperature.
Simultaneously, power is supplied to each of the semiconductor laser couplers D through the plug-in terminal 24A, and power is supplied also to the light receiving elements R corresponding to the semiconductor laser couplers D through the plug-in terminal 27A while data signals produced by the individual light receiving elements R from laser light received from the individually corresponding semiconductor laser couplers D are inputted from the plug-in terminal 27A to a computer (not shown) connected to the aging apparatus 10. Consequently, the computer processes the inputted data signals to detect and record characteristic variations of the individual semiconductor laser couplers D.
Such aging is performed to examine whether or not the individual semiconductor laser couplers D are good or whether or not semiconductor laser couplers D are good for each manufacture lot.
However, the aging apparatus 10 must produce a predetermined temperature profile after all cassettes 20 are set into it because the aging apparatus 10 itself functions as a constant temperature bath.
Further, the aging apparatus 10 itself is considerably large in size and is very high in price.
Furthermore, in the conventional aging apparatus 10, the body serving as a constant temperature bath is controlled using a single temperature regulator. Consequently, each aging operation must be performed with cassettes 20 received in all of the slots 12 of the aging apparatus 10. Accordingly, the operation efficiency is low.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an aging socket, an aging cassette and an aging apparatus with which an aging system of a very low cost can be constructed.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an aging socket, an aging cassette and an aging apparatus with which aging can be performed for any number of inspection object parts.
In order to attain the objects described above, according to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided an aging socket, including a base on which a mounting portion on which an aging object part can be mounted is formed, a heater for heating an aging object part mounted on the mounting portion, and a temperature sensor for detecting a temperature of the mounting portion, a temperature of an aging object part mounted on the mounting portion and being heated or a temperature of the heater, the heater and the temperature sensor being incorporated in the base in such a manner as to be opposed to the mounting portion.
With the aging socket, an aging object part mounted on the aging socket can be heated directly.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an aging cassette, including a body, a plurality of sockets disposed on the body and each including a base on which a mounting portion on which an aging object part can be mounted is formed, a heater for heating an aging object part mounted on the mounting portion, and a temperature sensor for detecting a temperature of the mounting portion, a temperature of an aging object part mounted on the mounting portion and being heated or a temperature of the heater, the heater and the temperature sensor being incorporated in the base in such a manner as to be opposed to the mounting portion, and an electronic circuit board built in the body and including a power supply circuit by which terminals of the heaters and the temperature sensors mounted on the sockets are connected to individual power supplies.
With the aging cassette, all of aging object parts mounted on the aging cassette can be heated all at the same time or for each group or else individually to perform aging of the same. Consequently, characteristic states of the individual aging object parts can be evaluated.
According to a further aspect of the present invention, there is provided an aging apparatus, including a body on which a plurality of slots each capable of receiving an aging cassette are formed, each of the aging cassettes having a body, a plurality of sockets disposed on the body and each including a socket body, a plurality of sockets disposed on the socket body of the socket and each including a base on which a mounting portion on which an aging object part can be mounted is formed, a heater for heating an aging object part mounted on the mounting portion, and a temperature sensor for detecting a temperature of the mounting portion, a temperature of an aging object part mounted on the mounting portion and being heated or a temperature of the heater, the heater and the temperature sensor being incorporated in the base in such a manner as to be opposed to the mounting portion, and an electronic circuit board built in the body and including a power supply circuit by which terminals of the heaters and the temperature sensors mounted on the sockets are connected to individual power supplies, and a start switch and a temperature regulator incorporated in each of the slots.
Preferably, the aging apparatus further comprises a temperature indicator incorporated in each of the slots.
With the aging apparatus, it need not be formed as a constant temperature bath, and consequently, it can be formed at a very low cost. Further, aging of any number of aging cassettes which are set in the slots of the aging apparatus can be started individually or for each group or else for all of them to effect temperature regulation. Accordingly, aging object parts can be evaluated individually, and aging can be performed irrespective of whether the quantity of aging object parts is great or small.
The above and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which like parts or elements denoted by like reference symbols.